‘Impractical Jokers’ on Ed Harris & Jeff Daniels Joining the ‘Dinner Party’
Preview
The guys of Impractical Jokers have become household names over the past 10 years, and now they’re bringing fans into their own homes with their delightful at-home show Impractical Jokers: Dinner Party.
Each installment of the truTV series features the four lifelong friends known for embarrassing one another — Tenderloins Joe Gatto, Brian “Q” Quinn, James “Murr” Murray, and Sal Vulcano — sitting down for a meal and chatting through a virtual platform. After growing up together, this is the longest these silly friends have gone without getting together in-person, but it hasn’t zapped the fun from their banter.
The guys continue to deliver laughs and will no doubt do so in the summer finale of Dinner Party on Thursday, July 16. A highlight among the shenanigans fans have seen onscreen this season was a fake feud between actors Jeff Daniels (The Newsroom) and Ed Harris (Westworld), which the Jokers manifested themselves.
In Episode 3, Daniels appeared as their special guest, Quinn mentioned that he gave Harris a dirty look after he replaced Daniels as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway. The Jokers went on to ask the actor what his “beef” with Harris was, making something out of nothing. “Out of some misguided loyalty to Jeff that he never asked for, I shot Ed Harris a dirty look and we told the story on the show,” Quinn explains.
By Episode 6, Gatto was surprising his pals with another special guest, Harris himself. “The joke came up naturally,” Gatto says of the scenario, “and then as soon as it ended, I had texted the showrunner and said ‘we gotta get Ed Harris,’ and we sent out a thing… to Ed’s PR people, and they declined.”
Gatto goes on to add, “I said, ‘Let’s just try again, but let’s send him the clip with Jeff Daniels… just send him the clip, he’ll get it.’ So he sent him the clip and Ed actually answered and said, ‘I’m in, I’ll definitely come say hi to the guys.'”
Needless to say, their collective reaction was priceless as Quinn reveals, “I was gobsmacked.”
“You were all taken aback,” Gatto laughs. It was one of my favorite moments.”
As far as continuing the fun with Dinner Party, Quinn says, “we would love to!” And Gatto offers extra insight, adding, “There’s definitely a discussion about it… [the show]’s been doing really well. People have received it well, so we’re hopeful that we can continue it cause we have to eat… so we might as well just film it,” Gatto concludes as the gang laughs in unison.
“We’re just kind of waiting and hoping for the best,” Vulcano confirmed.
(Credit: truTV)
No return date for their flagship series Impractical Jokers has been set, but they brought on more laughs this summer with the pre-taped game show The Misery Index which recently wrapped its second season. Their film Impractical Jokers: The Movie also dropped this year, beginning in theaters in late February before moving to On Demand platforms when theaters shut down.
When chatting about the film, we couldn’t resist asking Murray about that jaw-dropping punishment [Spoiler] that included him being strapped to an open airplane as it did flips and tricks. To add context to the stunt, Murray turns his phone to the video conference screen, displaying his climb onto the wing mid-air.
“Funny little story about it, the only way we could get permission to do it is if we filmed the punishment on the very last day of the movie,” Murray shares. “Because that way — God forbid I didn’t make it — they would have the full movie done. And they took a $15 million life insurance policy out on me in case I didn’t make it, which I’m very grateful to my best friends for not sabotaging the plane and just collecting the [money],” he jokes as the rest of the guys laugh.
We’re glad, too. Don’t miss their hilarious antics in the movie, Dinner Party and more.
Impractical Jokers: Dinner Party, Season finale, Thursday, July 16, truTV
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